Meta has 12,000 fewer employees and 26% more revenue

The most expensive employee at Meta right now is a GPU.

The company made $64.6 BILLION in three months, grew revenue 26%, and somehow ended the year with roughly 12,000 fewer employees.

As is evident, the future of Big Tech involves more GPUs, fewer humans, and a truly terrifying electricity bill.

Meta's Q3 2026 results

Meta's Q3 2026 results are out. Revenue jumped 26% year over year, largely thanks to advertising. Ad impressions rose 10%, while the average price per ad climbed 14%.

So people are seeing more ads, advertisers are paying more for them, and Zuckerberg is having a wonderful quarter.

Meanwhile, Meta's workforce fell 15% year over year to 66,775 employees. That's roughly 12,000 fewer people on the payroll.

Where the money is going

Meta spent $34.9 billion on capital expenditures in ONE QUARTER, largely on servers, data centers and networking. That's up roughly 80% from a year earlier.

Its quarterly free cash flow went from positive $10.6 billion last year to NEGATIVE $2.1 billion. Imagine generating $32.8 billion in operating cash and still spending so aggressively that your free cash flow goes below zero. By Billions.

Obviously, the AI gamble isn't entirely hypothetical. Meta says its recommendation systems are improving engagement and ad monetization. Its new Muse agent has crossed 10 million accounts in the US and Canada, although only about a quarter are active daily.

And now Reuters reports Meta is pursuing up to $95 billion in equity fundraising to finance its AI expansion.

Ninety-five billion dollars. For a company that already prints money selling ads between your friends' vacation photos.

What it means for engineering, data and infrastructure leaders

For CTOs and senior engineering leaders, the message here is that companies are willing to spend astronomical amounts on infrastructure when they see a path to higher revenue or lower unit costs. But that doesn't mean they'll maintain the same management structures or headcount.

If you're leading engineering, data or infrastructure, the questions increasingly revolve around what your teams actually deliver: revenue, efficiency, reliability, and measurable business impact.

Meta is betting that bigger models, better recommendations and more computing power will justify the bill.

Its employees are discovering that record revenue doesn't necessarily come with record job security.

If you really have been keeping up, job security has become a myth at this point. In a scenario like this, the only way to sleep better is to stay proactive about your job search.

The best time to look for a job is when you don't "need" to. If you want a steady stream of qualified interviews, be it out of desire or necessity, our team does just that for you without having to submit a single application.